Unexplored Streams in the San Bernardino Mountains?

Discovering new trout streams in local mountains is my passion. I spend hours pouring over old stocking records, topographic maps, satellite imagery (Thanks, Google), outdated fishing reports, and more in my search for wild trout, both in the San Gabriels and the San Bernardino mountain ranges. I don't keep these fish - rather it's the thrill of hiking to a hidden stream and discovering wild trout that offers all the satisfaction that I need to make an epic fishing trip. I rarely share these creeks, mostly due to the devastation hordes of people have done on more well-know watersheds, like the San Gabriel River and Lytle Creek. 

However, there are several creeks that I can't seem to find any information on, let alone get to access. Some of these might end up being a trip in the far future, but some appear almost completely unrealistic to ever explore. Thus, I'm posting about these in hopes anyone who has information would be willing to let me know what these lone spots are like.

Banning Canyon

San Gorgonio River

Millard Canyon and East Millard Canyon
Wood Canyon

All of these watersheds appear difficult to access, primarily due to a lack of public roads. The first, Banning Canyon, is enormous, but really lacks all info about it online. What's back there? How can one access it? I'm all ears. 

The others, especially Millard Canyon, have access roads that go through the Morongo Reservation. It sounds like they do not offer public access to this national forest area, which is unfortunate, 

A couple of reports from others, predominately hikers, have been posted, and shed a little light on the tough situation to get back there:
http://www.summitpost.org/kitching-peak/764739

http://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=392703

The USDA Forest Service also lists several trails that access Millard Canyon in the San Bernardino National Forest, including a Bear Wallow Camp, Deer Springs Trail, Kitchen Peak Trail , but state "access trailed closed".
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5402321.pdf

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/sbnf/recarea/?recid=74261

Interestingly, the only mentions as of late about Millard Canyon are related to the Nestle Bottled Water controversy during the drought:
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2014/07/12/nestle-arrowhead-tapping-water/12589267/

https://patch.com/california/banning-beaumont/banning-council-votes-5-0-to-rename-fields-road-despi0ef8489129

Other, more disturbing mentions of Millard Canyon have also been posted:
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/jul/23/news/mn-6391

I'd love to learn more about these canyons and creeks. Feel free to post here, or contact me at Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingTheRiverKing/
Or, email me: 

Tiny Creek Redband Trout San Bernardino

 Locating a tiny creek through online research and discussion with other fishermen, then hiking in and actually fishing it sucessfully is truly rewarding. Such was the case for one of my recent fishing trips in the San Bernardino National Forest.

 Armed with my ultralite fishing gear, I located this miniscule watershed and proceeded to catch many healthy Redband-strain rainbow trout in less than an hour. All fish were quickly released back into their mountain stream environment, colorful patterns and all.

The creek has been through a lot, with natural disasters and manmade problems really hurting the fish population. Still, some fish still exist here, as evidenced in the video I took of the trip:



San Bernardino National Forest Steelhead! (Not So Much)

A few weeks ago, I went off the beaten path and explored a new stream in the San Bernardino National Forest. After hiking in, I came across a large, deep pool. First cast resulted in a missed strike, second cast with a micro jig was nailed-hookup! I quickly figured out that this was no small fry, as my drag was getting burned all around the pool. Took me a while to get a look at the fish, eventually it surfaced and I was very surprised. It was an extraordinarily large rainbow trout, especially for the size of this stream! A few more heart pounding moments later and I was able to land it, snag a few pictures and release it back to its water domain.

I've spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the origins of this fish. Initially, I suspected that someone had dumped a large stocked rainbow from a nearby public lake or pond into this portion of the creek. However, this fish did not have any tell-tale hatchery signs, fin clippings nor did it have the usual wear and tear of a hatchery fish. Secondly, I hooked into a similar fish just a bit downstream, of roughly the same size and markings, also in a deeper pool. I've discussed this with a few anglers who frequent the area and the general consensus is as follows: these fish are born in the tiny creek I was fishing at, then travel downstream to a large, deep section of the creek/holding pond-style area. Here, they spend their time getting fat, then eventually travel back upstream to lay their eggs, much like a sea-run steelhead would do, albeit on a smaller scale.

So, this fish isn't quite a steelhead, but it sure is doing its best to behave as one in the limited water environment of the Inland Empire! Sadly, there didn't appear to be any juvenile fish or even normal 10'' in the creek for the 1/2 mile section I explored. Hopefully these larger fish are able to spawn successfully and replenish this creek again! Catching this fish was an absolute thrill and it's really impressive to me that such a fish could survive, let alone mature to reach such a size in this small watershed. Tight lines!